Manly m



(No Model.)

M. GILLAM. ACTUATING M'BHANISM FOR ADVERTISING DEVICES; N0. 554,926;

Patented'eb; 18, 1896.

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wm %Q\N @n SA QS W QN mw. NQ u. NN NL.. .0 A Q K msm j NSN ....w.. NSN RK Q vumwmlb lthe followingis a specification.

NITE*- #STATES i MANLY M GILLAM, OF NEvV YORK, N. Y.

ACTUATINGIVIECHANISIVI FOR ADVERTISING DEVICES.

SIYECIFICAEIOINT forming part of iLettersiPatent No. 554,926, dated February 18, 1896.

Application filed Octoberl, 1895.

To @ZZ whom it mctycoztcern: v

Be it known that I, lWlANLY M. GILLAM, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Actuating Mechanism for Advertising Devices, of which- My invention has relation to actuating 'mechanism for advertising devices of the class wherein a sign carrying two or more descriptive faces is yadapted to be rotated; and it relates particularly to the arrangement and construction of mechanism for actuating a sign.

The principal objects of my invention are, iirst, to provide a simple, durable, and inexpensive mechanism for rotating an advertising-sign; second, to provide in such a mechanism an electromagnet the armature of which is adapted periodicallyA to rotate the sign, and, third, to providein such a mechanism means whereby, during operation of the armature and an arm carried thereby, the magnet is alternately magnetized anddemagnetized.

My invention consists of an actuating mechanism for rotating an advertising-sign constructed and arranged in substantially the manner hereinafter described and claimed.

The nature, characteristic features, and scope of my invention will be more fully understood from the following description,taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming part hereof, Aand in which- Figure 1 is an end elevational view of an apparatus for rotating a sign embodying features of myinvention and illustrating an electromagnet and an armature adapted to control the actuation of the sign. Fig. 2 is a side elevational view of the apparatus; and Fig. 3 is a side elevational view, enlarged, of the lower end of the contact making and breaking strip, illustrating the successive positions assumed by the same during the movement of the armature-controlled arm of the device.

Referring to the drawings, a represents the end and c the longitudinal descriptive faces of a rotatable sign. The sign is supported by means of a shaft c in a bracket or standard d2, so that said sign may rotate therein. The shaft c of the sign is supported in the arms serial No. 565,753. (No model.)

of a standard d2, and to the shaft is keyed or otherwise secured a disk n, provided on its periphery with a number of stop-pins n', corresponding in number with the faces of the sign, which in the present instance are four, as illustrated. On the face of the disk n are a corresponding number of actuating-pins fm2. Above the periphery of the disk 'n and resting thereon is a gravity-pawl ln3, adapted to abut against one of the stop-pins n' to prevent the rotation of the disk n in one direction. Resting on the pins 'n2 is a hook-shaped arm n4, which is secured at its lower end to a lever-arm a5, which is pivoted to an upright n. of the standard cl2 and normally held upward, as indicated in Fig. 7, by the spring a7. The lever-arm 07,5 carries the armature w8 of an electromagnet 'm9, and the said arm a5 is adapted to be depressed by the electromagnet 'm9, when it is energized, against the tension of the spring a7. Below the disk n is located a stop-pawl n10, connected by a wire or link nu to the lever-arm 'n5 and controlled by said link and lever-arm.

When the electromagnet ng is energized and the lever-arm a5 is depressed, the hookshaped arm n4 will strike against one of the pins n2 and carry the disk n in a forward direction. Directly after the thrust of the arm n4 the pawl n10 is thrown upward by the lever-arm a5 and the link nu onto the periphery of the disk fn and abutting against one of the peripheral stop-pins n to prevent further rotation Vof the disk. The gravity-pawl n3 also slips into place back of one of the pins n to prevent a back movement of the disk n, and the disk is locked lin its stationary position by the two pawls. The lever-arm a5, when used in connection with the Hat strip '1112, serves also to automatically magnetize and demagnetize the magnet n by making and breaking the circuit in which it is included, as follows: v

In the diagram illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 one wire 'nw of the electromagnet n is connected directly with one pole of the battery nl* or other source of electric energy, while the other wire m15 of said magnet is connected with a hook-shaped contact-piece uw, carried on the end of the arm or". The other pole of the battery u is connectedV with a thin contact strip or switch w12. This strip n12 has on IOO its inner surface an insulating or non-conducting block 9711, which is slightly shorter than the arc described by the piece 9716 when moved by the lever-arm 976. The strip 9712, with the exception of the block 9717, is made of copper or other good conducting material, which is slightly resilient and insures good results in practice of the same. The strip 9712 is sheared, as at 97111 and 9716, to form an overlapping guide or edge above the non-conducting snrfaee 9717, the lower edge of the guide extending slightly below the upper edge of the block 9717. lVhenever the piece 9716 rests on the conducting portion of the strip 9712, the circuit is completed and the electromagnet is energized; but when the piece 9716 travels on the block 9717 the current is broken and the clectromagnet is demagnetized. Then the arm 975 is under the inliucnce of its spring 977 and is elevated thereby, the contact-piece 7716 travels upward over the block 9711 until it comes into contact with the overlapping guide, when the current is completed and the electromagnet is enerits upward movement, under the tension of gized. The eleetromagnet then depresses the lever-arm 975 by attracting the armature secured thereon, and the piece 9716 is carried downward over the contact-surface of the strip 9716 until it clears the lower edge of the strip, when the current is broken and the arm 976 is free to be raised by the spring 977. Then the arm 976 moves upward over the non-conducting surface 9716, under the intlucnce of the spring 97,7, the end of the contactstrip is swung slightly to the left by the hook-shaped contact-piece 9716 until this coni jects of my invention, what I claim as new,

tact-piece 9716 is opposite the sheared portions 971S and 9716, when the resiliency of the strip 9712 will cause it to spring to the right until the hook 9716 rests against the overlapping portion of said strip 9716. A contact is thereby established, and the hook will be moved downward over the contact-surface of the strip 9712 against the influence of the spring 977, which at the same time is drawn slightlyr to the right. When the hook 9716 clears the lower end of the strip 9712, the same will spring back slightly to the left, thus presenting the non-conducting face 9717 to the hook 9716. The circuit being thus broken, the spring 977 will lift the hook 9716 upward over the non-conducting face 9711. The successive positions of the strip 9712 are illustrated in ful] and dotted lines in Fig. 3 of the drawings.

In operation the magnet 97g is connected with the battery 9711 and is thereby magnetized. The armature 978 is attracted to the magnet against the influence of the spring 977. The lever-arm 976 and its link 9711 are thus moved downward, thereby bringing pawl 9716 into alignment with the pins 97. The hookshaped arm 974 is moved downward by the le ver-arm 975 and strikes against one of the actuating-pins 772 before the pawl 9716 is in the path of pins 97. The disk 97 is thus rotated through the shaft c, to which said disk is semagnet is broken.

cured. The sign eis also rotated a suihcient dista-nce to present one of its four faces to the observer. During the downward movement of the lever-arm 975 its hook 9716 is in contact with the conducting-face of the strip 9712, so that the current from the battery 97171 continues to flow through the magnet 976 and to energize the same. Vhen, however, the leverarm 975 has reached its lowest position, (indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2,) the hookshaped arm 974 has completed its stroke and the hook 77,16 reaches the position indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 3, in which it clears the contact-strip 9712. At this moment the strip 9712 springs to the left, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, and the current through the The spring 977 now forces the armature 978 upward away from the mag- 'net 979, and also forces the lever-arm 776 up- `-ward.

The movement of the arm 976 is transferred through link 9711 to the pawl 7716, which is thrown out of alignment with the stop-pins A gravity-pawl 973 prevents a rebound or backward movement of the disk c. In

spring 977, the arm 976 carries its hook-shaped end 9716 u )ward along the non-conductinr face 97,17 of strip 9712, thus forcing the strip to the left, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. When, however, the hook l7716 reaches the sheared portion 9716, the strip 7712 will spring to the right to the position indicated in full 1lines in Figs. 2 and 3, and the hook 9716 will i then contact with the conducting portion 9716 of strip 9712.

Having thus described the nature and oband desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of a rotatable sign, a

shaft carried by the sign, a disk secured to said shaft, an electromagnet, an armature therefor, a circuit making and breaking defvice for energizing and de-energizing said magnet, consisting of a flexible contact-strip and a lever-arm traversing the same carried by the armature, and mechanism controlled by said lever-arm for rotating said disk, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. The combination of a rotatable sign, a shaft carried by the sign, a disk secured to said shaft, an electromagnet, an armature therefor, a lever-arm carried by said armature, a hook carried by said lever-arm, a ilexible contact-strip traversed by said hook and adapted to thereby make and break the magnetiZing-circuit, and mechanism controlled by said lever-arm for rotating said disk, substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MANLY M. GILLAM.

Vitnesses:

RoBT. J. DOBBINs, JESSE PENNYPACKER.

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